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Lion attack: Fresno County cat sanctuary reopens to public

A Fresno County wild cat sanctuary reopened to the public Sunday for the first time since intern Diana Hanson was killed when a lion attacked her at the park last week.

At noon, about two dozen visitors joined stricken staff members of Project Survival’s Cat Haven in a moment of silence for the young woman whose life passion was working with big cats.

Hanson, 26, was killed at the Dunlap park Wednesday, when a 4-year-old male lion named Cous Cous attacked her. Another volunteer tried to lure the lion away from Hanson, but by the time authorities reached Hanson, she was dead. The cat was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies.

During Sunday’s gathering, the haven's founder Dale Anderson reiterated remarks he made earlier at a news conference that the staff who raised the lion Cous Cous since he was a cub had found no fault with deputies' shooting the animal to get to Hanson.

"People want to put Cous Cous in the same category as her and it’s not the same," he said. "But I'm going to miss my boy."

Members of Hanson’s family have said they believe her death was an accident.

A preliminary autopsy suggested that Hanson died quickly from a fractured neck and “some suffocation,” said Fresno County Coroner David Hadden. The neck injury appeared to have come from a swipe of the lion’s paw.

Project Survival's Cat Haven houses lions, tigers, cheetahs and jaguars in enclosures on a boulder-strewn hillside about half a mile off the main road to Kings Canyon National Park. The nonprofit sanctuary, which raises money for conservation causes, gets about 10,000 visitors a year.

Photo: Morgan Cabral, 8, watches leopards while holding a toy tiger he bought at Project Survival's Cat Haven in Dunlap on Sunday. The park reopened for the first time after an intern was killed by a lion last week. Credit: Diana Marcum / Los Angeles Times